armchair apocrypha

 Andrew Bird explored superstition, history, science, and mystery with his own unique blend of jazz and folk on this lush and lyrical dreamspell.  'Armchair Apocrypha' builds on the advances of his previous album 'The Mysterious Production Of Eggs' with Bird collaborating with drummer and electric pianist Martin Dosh.  Bird explains:   "It was quite a bit different. I think the first song we recorded was 'Plasticities', which Martin Dosh and I had just started playing together. That was one of the first songs where we were just experimenting with us both looping and combining our distinct universes with each other. We went into Third Ear [Studio] in Minneapolis and recorded basically what we do live, which is him building a loop on drums while I'm building a loop on violin—which is a risky way to go. You don't have as much control, but we thought, 'This is working really well live, so let's just try it like we do it [on stage].' And it worked out really well.  There were a lot of things we couldn't fix because of the way we did it. But I've just learned that you never know which approach is going to work, so I try every possible one and see which one's the best. That can be a bit grueling and can take a while. But this one was a little more… I was determined to get more of the ecstasy that comes in a live show, and more of the zinging out that I do in a live show, the feverishness that comes over me onstage. It's really hard to get in that state of mind in an empty studio in a basement in Minneapolis in February. But we did everything we could to create that bigger sound. 'Eggs' had an intimacy to the vocals which worked just fine for that record, but it's generally not an aesthetic that I'm a big fan of—that sound of a voice right in your ear, whispering quietly. It's just not the way I like to sing. That's the difference right there. And there's Dosh's input on stuff, his style of playing...I have a know-it-when-you-hear-it approach to things, and I know so much what I don't want to hear, so a lot of stuff ends up on the cutting-room floor. But going into this record, I did have a conscious desire to really stretch out some of the melodies and vocalize, instead of having sort of a dense rambling of lyrics. To stretch things out but not have it feel sleepy. So there's a longer arc to a lot of phrases—'Dark Matter' or 'Armchair Apocrypha' are probably the best examples of that. Trying to create a beam of sound with your voice, that was a conscious goal."

Co-produced by Ben Durrant, the sessions took place at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, MN;  Crazy Beast Studio in Northeast Minneapolis; Third Ear Recording, Minneapolis; and Electrical Audio and Wall2Wall Recording in Chicago with Andrew Bird on violin, vocals, whistling, guitar, and glockenspiel; Haley Bonar on vocals; Jon Davis on bass clarinet; Martin Dosh on drums, electric piano, and other sounds; Ben Durrant on guitar; Chris Morrissey on bass; Kevin O'Donnell on drums; and Jeremy Ylvisaker on guitar.   'Armchair Apocrypha' went to number seventy-six on the US album chart and sold over one hundred thousand copies.  







http://www.andrewbird.net/



  






Fiery Crash





Imitosis




Dark Matter




Armchairs






bonus tracks: 


Sic of Elephants (Sycophantitis)




Self-Torture (The Water Jet Cilice)










'Armchair Apocrypha'
full album:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K8lVfnzByY




1.  00:00  "Fiery Crash"    
2.  04:09  "Imitosis"    
3.  08:04  "Plasticities"   
4.  12:27  "Heretics"    
5.  15:55  "Armchairs"    
23:00-34:34  (silence)
6.  34:34  "Darkmatter"    
7.  39:38  "Simple X" (Bird, Martin Dosh)  
8.  43:13  "The Supine"   
44:14-46:36  (silence)
9.  46:36  "Cataracts"    
10. 49:45  "Scythian Empires"    
11. 54:15  "Spare-Ohs"   
12. 58:30  "Yawny at the Apocalypse"   

raising sand

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss found unlikely success with this mesmerizing and eclectic melding of folk, blues, rockabilly, bluegrass, country, and rock. 'Raising Sand' was produced by T-Bone Burnett with sessions that took place at Sound Emporium in Nashville, Tennessee; Electro Magnetic Studios and The Village Recorder in Los Angeles; and Sage & Sound in Hollywood. The album features Robert Plant on vocals and Alison Krauss on vocals and fiddle; with Riley Baugus on banjo; Jay Bellerose on drums; Norman Blake on acoustic guitar; T-Bone Burnett on acoustic, electric, and six-string bass guitar; Dennis Crouch on acoustic bass; Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar; Marc Ribot on acoustic guitar, banjo, dobro, and electric guitar; Mike Seeger on autoharp; and Patrick Warren on keyboards, pump organ, and toy piano.

The collaboration between the rock icon and country star seemed strange to many. Krauss remembers:   “When I first met him, at a Leadbelly tribute, I saw that big hairdo, I said 'Robert,’ he turns around, he’s got these glasses on, and he goes 'There you are.’ And the first thing he starts talking about is Ralph Stanley. He’s very passionate about music. We were riding around making the record and he goes, 'Do you think something’s wrong with me? My kids say, 'We want a real dad, can’t you be a normal dad?’ and I’m like, 'They’re going to be waiting a long time.’ He’s like 'Listen to this, this Egyptian singer, can you believe it, blaaaah…’ Just crazy.That’s a really infectious, wonderful thing to be around.”

'Raising Sand' went to number forty-five in Australia; thirty-three in Switzerland; twenty-six in Germany; five in Canada; three on Australia's country chart; two in Sweden, the UK, the US, and the US country chart; and number one in Norway and on the US rock album chart. In the US, it made its debut at number two. 'Raising Sand' went on to win Grammy awards for all of the catagories for which it was nominated: Album of the Year; Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album; Record of the Year (for "Please Read the Letter"); Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals (for "Rich Woman"); and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (for "Killing the Blues").   Plant admits:   "With all small pools of beautiful music, there is a sort of sacrosanct, almost hallowed, area, of where the audience and musician become one in this closely guarded secret. It’s bullshit, absolute bullshit. Music is for every single person that walks the planet. In the end, if it gets you, it gets you. So terminology, terms, parentheses, I think that they’re irrelevant. I think what happened was Alison and I made some great records with a producer who was right on the top of his gig, and some great people were playing around him. And the songs were chosen really, really well. I wanted to bring in some smoky sort of stuff I thought I could never get at with anybody else. But I think the great thing is that there’s a promising and more and more progressive marriage between artists under a flag like that."









http://www.robertplant.com/

https://alisonkrauss.com/








'Raising Sand' 
full album:




1. "Rich Woman" Dorothy LaBostrie, McKinley Millet 4:04
2. "Killing the Blues" Roly Jon Salley 4:16
3. "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" Sam Phillips 3:26
4. "Polly Come Home" Gene Clark 5:36
5. "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" The Everly Brothers 3:33
6. "Through the Morning, Through the Night" Gene Clark 4:01
7. "Please Read the Letter" Charlie Jones, Michael Lee, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant 5:53
8. "Trampled Rose" Kathleen Brennan, Tom Waits 5:34
9. "Fortune Teller" Allen Toussaint 4:30
10. "Stick With Me Baby" Mel Tillis 2:50
11. "Nothin'" Townes Van Zandt 5:33
12. "Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson" Milton Campbell 4:02
13. "Your Long Journey" Doc Watson, Rosa Lee Watson 3:55





 

 

in rainbows

Radiohead continued to break barriers with the distinctive distribution and innovative instrumentation of this captivatingly colorful landmark album. The recording of 'In Rainbows' started slowly after the year hiatus that followed the tour for 'Hail to the Thief'. When the sessions with producer Mark Stent began to drag, the band went on a three month tour and found themselves reinvigorated. When the tour was over they returned to the studio with producer Nigel Godrich. Sessions took place at a condemned mansion called Tottenham Court House, Halswell House in Taunton, Godrich's Hospital Studios in Covent Garden, and Radiohead's studio in Oxfordshire.   The album features the Matrix Music School children's choir and strings by the Millennia Ensemble. 

Thom Yorke admits:  "There's very little anger in 'In Rainbows'. It's in no way political, or, at least, doesn't feel that way to me. It very much explores the ideas of transience. It starts in one place and ends somewhere completely different. That was the only way we could fit it together, but it turned out to be a real upside in the end. The first half of it is pretty raw, pretty hectic. Even though you have 'Nude', what the lyrics are actually saying is pretty messed-up, nasty. After a while, everything calms down and you get it out of your system. You feel better; there's this feeling of elation. As far as the artwork goes, that was heavily influenced by the pictures NASA puts on their website. They have this great library of stuff online that we were looking at, and it coincided with Stanley Donwood's experiments, throwing wax around. It was just experimentation, but it gave a sense of release, letting go...There is a certain way of a life, a certain way of being, that is, one way or another, going to come to an end. Hopefully something good to come to fruition, or maybe nothing will. A lot of background to this, for me, is the environmental thing. I didn't want to put that anywhere in the music, but it's absolutely there all the time, in my consciousness."

Ed O'Brian considers:  "What I liked about arriving at this record, thematically, was the lyrics had changed. What's really strong to me about the record is, the lyrics are perennial in their scope...It's a very human thing. Music, at the end of the day, is communicating something: emotion, a feeling, a rite of passage, where you are in life. This record really does that. It's not a thing that's being written by someone who's in an exclusive position. It's something that's felt by everyone."

Colin Greenwood said at the time:   “If you’re doing anything that’s important or confronting, you’re going to get the fear. That validates it in a way. For me the big thing about having kids last year is that, as a parent, you’ve got to have something that you do that you’re happy about that defines yourself, because if you don’t have that you’re no good to anyone. In a good way it validates the passion you had for music."

Since their contract with EMI had expired, the band decided to make the unprecedented move to release 'In Rainbows' for download before it was available in stores. They also gave fans the choice of how much they would pay for it.  The physical release of the album came two months later, with the album going to number eleven in Japan; eight in Germany; two in Australia and New Zealand; and number one in Canada, France, Ireland, the UK, and the US.  'In Rainbows' entered the album charts in the UK and the US at number one and went on to sell more than three million copies.  It won Grammy awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Special Limited Edition Package.  'In Rainbows'  is the catchiest, most direct album they'd put out in years. Letting go of the outrageous runaway experimentalism, they let themselves be a band; and the results are wonderful:  the arpeggio of a house of cards jigsaw puzzle falling into place. We see their true colors.







http://www.radiohead.com/









Live From The Basement






'In Rainbows' 
full album:

1. 15 Step - 0:00
2. Bodysnatchers - 3:57
3. Nude - 8:00
4. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi - 12:15
5. All I Need - 17:33
6. Faust Arp - 21:21
7. Reckoner - 23:31
8. House of Cards - 28:21
9. Jigsaw Falling into Place - 33:50
10. Videotape - 37:59
Bonus Tracks:
The Daily Mail - 42:41
Staircase - 46:18




'disk 2' was a bonus disk that came with pre-ordered copies of the album through the band's website.





1.   00:00  MK 1
2.  01:04   Down Is The New Up
3.  06:03  Go Slowly
4.  09:51  MK 2
5.  10:44  Last Flowers
6.  15:11   Up On The Ladder
7.  19:28  Bangers + Mash
8.  22:48  4 Minute Warning

kala

M.I.A. doubled down on her adventurous world music with the explosive percussion and innovative samples of this primal and political pièce de résistance.  After the critical success of her debut 'Arular', British born  Sri Lankan Maya Arulpragasam planned to record her follow-up 'Kala' with American producer Timbaland; however, due to the incendiary lyrics of her first album, she was not allowed to enter the US.  She considers:  "When I was denied the visa, I ended up just couch-surfing, sleeping at other people’s houses. I couldn’t access any of my equipment or my demos – it was already over in America, with the rest of my life – so I had to start from scratch with what was around me. The thing is, I get bored easily, and I don’t see the point of doing something twice. I made 'Arular' in London; I’d already made a real London album. I just thought, fuck it. If I’m gonna couch-surf in London, I might as well go and couch surf in India or Liberia...And at the same time, I wanted to get out of people’s view: to go and spend time learning about myself and trying to be better. Not really technically better, but I just wanted to be better as a human being. And it’s really hard to do that when you make club music. There’s no such thing as a better human being in club music! It’s like, you either dance . . . or you get the fuck out! And I don’t want to be talking about ‘big titties’ and ‘fucking hos’. Dance music needs to be expanded, in terms of subject matter and substance, and that’s what I was trying to do...So when I started this album, I really thought, 'I don’t know why I’m doing this, I don’t know who I’m doing it for. I don’t know anything. I’m out of this relationship, Timbaland, that dream and hope, is not gonna happen, and I probably don’t even wanna make music.' I was exhausted, and then this album just came out from that weird place. I just didn’t care what anyone was going to think. And it just ended up being what it is because it came out from a time of just trying to survive, in music, as a woman...When I started making 'Arular', back in 2002-2004, there was just politics. Most people of our age, living in the West, were in the middle of the biggest saturated political moment of their lives. But now, well, we’ve seen where it goes. Everyone is out there talking about it. We’ve all watched Saddam Hussein being hanged on YouTube. What the hell have I got to add to that? Just trying to survive:  that’s what it’s about. I wanted to speak for everyday people, living their everyday lives."

While her first album was named after her father; this new album was named for her mother.  'Kala' was recorded in India, Jamaica, Australia, Liberia, and Trinidad with vocals by M.I.A.; featured vocals by Afrikan Boy, the Wilcannia Mob, Timbaland, and Rye Rye; and production by M.I.A., Switch, Diplo, Timbaland, Morganics, and Blaqstarr.  

'Kala' went to number one hundred and seventeen in France, ninety-three in Germany, forty-six in Australia, forty-four in the Netherlands, thirty-nine in the UK, twenty-three in Japan, twenty-two in Norway, eighteen in Sweden and the US, and number one on the US dance album chart.  The album was a huge critical success, making the top of end of the year reviews in several publications. She also saw a huge increase in her fan base.  She says:  "I was kind of surprised, actually. We keep doing these shows and people keep screaming and going mad. I don’t get it. I really don’t get it. I thought this album was much more raw than the first one, but the audiences are going crazy; dancing to it."






http://miauk.com/


@MIAuniverse






"Paper Planes" samples the Clash's "Straight to Hell". It became an international smash hit after appearing in the film 'Pineapple Express', going to seventy-six in Germany, sixty-six in Australia, fifty-seven in the Netherlands, thirty-six on the US R&B chart, nineteen in the UK, eighteen in Belgium and Denmark, seven in Canada, four in the US, and number one on the US dance chart.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sei-eEjy4g









"Bamboo Banga" samples "Roadrunner" by Jonathan Richman and "Kaattukkuyilu" by Ilaiyaraaja from the 1991 Tamil film 'Thalapathi'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jU5riJNrQQ




"Bird Flu"  samples "Thirvizha Na Vantha" by R. P. Patnaik from the Tamil film 'Jayam'.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2po1t_m-i-a-bird-flu_music

M.I.A. - Bird flu by eatbiscuits



"Boyz" went to number three on the US dance chart. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBX3lo3Boxs




"Jimmy" samples "Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" composed by Bappi Lahiri from the Bollywood film 'Disco Dancer'.  The single reached number sixty-six in the UK and number twenty-eight on the US dance chart.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBECisSkAu4&feature=fvwrel










'Kala' 

full album:





1. "Bamboo Banga"  
(M.I.A. Switch Jonathan Richman Ilaiyaraaja)
M.I.A. Switch  4:58
2. "Bird Flu"  
(M.I.A. Switch R. P. Patnaik)
M.I.A. Switch  3:24
3. "Boyz"  
(M.I.A. Switch)
M.I.A. Switch  3:27
4. "Jimmy"  
(M.I.A. Switch Bappi Lahiri)
M.I.A. Switch  3:29
5. "Hussel" (featuring Afrikan Boy)
(M.I.A. Switch Diplo)
M.I.A. Switch Diplo  4:25
6. "Mango Pickle Down River" (with The Wilcannia Mob)
(M.I.A. Keith Dutton Lendal King Colin Roy Johnson Walter Ebsworth Buddy Blair Morgan Lewis Brendan Adams Daniel Wright Will Jarrett)
M.I.A. Morganics 3:53
7. "20 Dollar"  
(M.I.A. Switch Charles Thompson)
Switch 4:34
8. "World Town"  
(M.I.A. Switch Blaqstarr)
M.I.A. Switch 3:52
9. "The Turn"  
(M.I.A. Blaqstarr)
M.I.A. Blaqstarr  3:52
10. "XR2"  
(M.I.A. Diplo Switch)
Diplo Switch 4:20
11. "Paper Planes"  
(M.I.A. Diplo Joe Strummer Mick Jones Paul Simonon Topper Headon)
Diplo Switch 3:24
12. "Come Around" (featuring Timbaland)
(Timothy Mosley Timothy Clayton M.I.A.)
Timbaland 3:53

umbrella

Rihanna made it rain all over the world with the libidinous voodoo of this plea for possession and protection.  'Umbrella' was written by Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Terius "The-Dream" Nash, Thaddis "Kuk" Harrell, and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter.  Stewart, Nash, and Harrell built the song around a hi-hat sound that came with GarageBand.  They wrote and recorded a demo very quickly and tried to shop it around to  Britney Spears, Taio Cruz, and Mary J. Blige; but  Island Def Jam chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid convinced them to give it to Rihanna for her third album, 'Good Girl Gone Bad'.  Harrell and Stewart produced the recording at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles.  The songwriters were unsure about the choice until they heard her take on the song.   Stewart says,  "When she recorded the 'ellas,' you knew it was about to be the jump-off, and your life was about to change if you had anything to do with that record."  Later, Jay-Z added his rap, changing the lyrics.  Stewart recalls: "There was actually another version before that one that he did. And the first one was perfect. And right before they were about to press it up, he went and changed his verse. And nobody even knew he changed his verse. At the time when he did, I didn't really understand. But now, when I go back every once in a while and listen to the old rap, what he wrote makes so much better sense. And from a songwriter's standpoint, he just really made it more about the song, with the metaphors about umbrellas and about the weather versus what he had before."

'Umbrella' went to number one in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.  In the UK, it made its debut at number one and spent ten consecutive weeks there. Worldwide it has sold more than six and half million copies, making it one of the biggest singles of all time.   While it was on the top of the British charts, the country was experiencing heavy rainfall and flooding.  Similar occurrences in New Zealand and Romania have led to speculation about a 'Rihanna Curse'.  

Rihanna said:  "I definitely knew that it was one of the most original sounds that I'd heard for a while. But a lot of people didn't really understand it. They thought the repetition was annoying. But I knew that was what people would catch on to right away, because that's what stuck in my head. People didn't get the lyric either...An umbrella is protection, it protects you from rain. The rain in this case is negativeness and vulnerability."







http://www.rihannanow.com/













Uh huh, uh huh
Yeah, Rihanna
Uh huh, uh huh 
Good girl gone bad
Uh huh, uh huh 
Take three, action
Uh huh, uh huh, ho

No clouds in my stones
Let it rain; I hydroplane into fame
Comin' down at the Dow Jones
When the clouds come, we gone
We Rocafella
We fly higher than weather
In G5's or better
You know me
In anticipation for precipitation stack chips for the rainy day
Rain man is back with little Ms. Sunshine
Rihanna, where you at?

You have my heart, and we'll never be worlds apart
Maybe in magazines, but you'll still be my star
Baby, 'cause in the dark
You can't see shiny cars
And that's when you need me there
With you I'll always share
Because

When the sun shines, we shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be your friend
Took an oath that I'm a stick it out till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh
Under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh
Under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh
Under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh

These fancy things will never come in between
You're part of my entity, here for infinity
When the world has took its part
When the world has dealt its cards
If the hand is hard, together we'll mend your heart
Because

When the sun shines, we shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be your friend
Took an oath that I'm a stick it out till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh
Under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh
Under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh
Under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh

You can run into my arms
It's okay, don't be alarmed
(Come into me)
(There's no distance in between our love)
So I'm gonna let the rain pour
I'll be all you need and more
Because

When the sun shines, we shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be your friend
Took an oath that I'm a stick it out till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh
Under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh
Under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh
Under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh

It's raining, raining
Ooh, baby, it's raining, raining
Baby, come into me
Come into me
It's raining, raining
Ooh, baby, it's raining, raining
You can always come into me
Come into me
It's pouring rain
It's pouring rain
Come into me
Come into me
It's pouring rain
It's pouring rain